Atlantis Found?

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Trouble with Tribbles

I would like to point out that tragedy was averted by the tribble control measures. What if the Enterprise had run out of food? Would the tribbles have developed a taste for living human flesh? 'Captain's Log: *PAUSE* The rest of my crew is dead *PAUSE* and my phaser is empty. *PAUSE* I can hear them chewing *PAUSE* through the door. *PAUSE* Oh, God! NOOOOO!' (The sounds of mewing and fabric ripping, then silence.)

I guess we'll just never know the true horrors, will we? You're a nerd. -ed Yeah, so? it got me this far, didn't it?

A frequent problem of mine

Good Riddance

How Arafat Got Away With It: "The place was his Ramallah compound, the time after midnight (Arafat was a night owl). He was wearing his trademark fatigues, and his hands and lips were shaking uncontrollably. Much of the session was conducted via translator, but Arafat broke into English when asked a question about Palestinian violations of the Oslo accords. It was the kind of query a democratic statesman would have batted away without a second thought.

Arafat, however, grew visibly agitated and stammered: 'Be careful when you are speaking to me! Be careful, you are speaking to Arafat!' The threat of violence hung in the air as we left. Clearly Arafat had not quite mastered the art of being a politician or, rather, he was a politician in the mold of Mugabe or Mao. "

Anyone who can say, without smirking or blushing, "This is you are speaking to" is someone who should be disregarded by serious people.

The New House of Lords--No!

Gerrymandering, even though it's in my party's favor at this point, is really starting to worry me. I would much prefer competitive elections. Ahhh! I can't even believe that me, a citizen of the United States of America, should have to say that I prefer 'competitive elections'! That's it, I'm going militant on this issue. If the Republican Party won't find a way to legislate against gerrymandering, than I say the courts step in. I'm against judicial activism, but there is a time and a place for it, and we may be nearing that destination.

Judicial Nominations: The Nuclear Option

You know what; I say it's time we made a 'bit of glass! *Cackles Wildly*From the NYTimes:

The Senate Rules Committee approved a plan last year that would gradually lower the threshold for filibusters against judicial nominees until a simple majority would allow a final vote. But a change in the rules requires 67 votes, and lacking anything near that support, the proposal never went to the floor.

Senator Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican who is chairman of the Rules Committee, has been among the Republicans who have also suggested that the Republicans try to win a change by seeking a ruling from the chairman, a position that a Republican would hold, that filibusters against executive nominations are unconstitutional. A favorable ruling would require just a majority to uphold.

Some Republicans have been reluctant to try that maneuver. They call it the nuclear option, because it could come back to haunt them if they are in the minority. Democrats have also threatened to tie up the Senate in knots if they lose their right to filibuster in that manner.

I'm not so sure it's a good idea; it's clearly a last resort. But I do find the nickname 'the nuclear option' to be hidiously, and satisfyingly, appealing. And I know the New York Times would take the opportunity of this procedural move to run some crazy headline about republicans 'nuking' the senate or some such headline. I would frame such a paper.

Ahhh...the simple joys of another G-File. Here's another gem that's worth more than just a laugh:

There's no time here to dismantle fully the edifice of condescension and ignorance constructed by Maher and Smiley (I put Dowd in a different category). But what offends them so much about religion is that it is a source of authority outside — and prior to — politics. What has offended the Left since Marx, and American liberalism since Dewey, is the notion that moral authority should be derived from anyplace other than the state or "the people" (conveniently defined as citizens who vote liberal). Voting on values not sanctified by secular priests is how they define "ignorance." This was the real goal of Hillary Clinton's "politics of meaning" — to replace traditional religion with a secular one that derived its authority not from ancient texts and "superstitions" but from the good intentions of an activist state and its anointed priests. Shortly before the election, Howell Raines fretted that the worst outcome of a Bush victory would be the resurgence of "theologically based cultural norms" — without even acknowledging the fact that "theologically based cultural norms" gave us everything from the printing press and the newspaper to the First Amendment he claims to be such a defender of.

What Maher, Raines, and Smiley fail to grasp is that all morality is based upon transcendence — or it is merely based on utilitarianism of one kind or another, and therefore it is not morality so much as, at best, an enlightened expediency or will-to-power. It is no more rational to vote based on a desire to do "good" than it is to vote based on a desire to do God's will. Indeed, for millions of people this is a distinction without a difference — as it was for so many of the abolitionists progressives and civil-rights leaders today's liberals love to invoke but never actually learn about.

Love, in fact, is just as silly and superstitious a concept as God (and for those who believe God is Love, this too is a distinction without a difference). Chesterton's observation that the purely rational man will not marry is just as correct today, because science has done far more damage to the ideal of love than it has done to the notion of an awesome God beyond our ken. Genes, hormones, instincts, evolution: These are the cause for the effect of love in the purely rational man's textbook. But Maher would get few applause lines from his audience of sophisticated yokels if he mocked love as a silly superstition. This is, in part, because the crowd he plays to likes the idea of love while it dislikes the idea of God; and in part because these people feel love, so they think it exists. But such is the extent of their solipsism and narcissism that they not only reject the existence of God but go so far as to mock those who do not, simply because they don't feel Him themselves. And, alas, in elite America, feelings are the only recognized foundation of metaphysics.

I didn't intend to get off on the tangent of religion. I'm not particularly religious myself, after all. Nevertheless, I think the great irony of this election is that for all the talk of how the bigoted Right won, the Left's loss has sparked far more bigotry. Their clever trick is to defend their hatred of the religious by calling it a hatred of bigotry itself — a rationalization no liberal would tolerate from any other kind of bigot.

(I was going to stop pasting blocks of text in here, but the ending of this column is so great I'm just going to slap it up as well. The Kissinger bit is just not to be missed.)

Anyway, I should wrap this up. Look, I understand that the entire Popular Front of the Left lost — and big — last week. I understand they thought they were going to win. I understand that many of them believed all of the nonsense about Bush's being a fascist crusader and I understand that some actually believed P. Diddy's axiom that you should vote (Democratic) or die. (Although it should be self-evident that a man who chooses the name P. Diddy is not a man to take very seriously. Last time I checked, Henry Kissinger never contemplated calling himself "Special K.")

But for those of you who think your grief and disappointment justify your pious nastiness and blame-shifting for your own failures: Do keep in mind that it is precisely such self-indulgence and arrogance that costs you elections.

Some thoughts on Cuban communism

Before the revolution, people died and became skeletons. After the revolution: skeleton first, die later.

For the new year, Cubans will receive two rice sacks each. One to wear as pants, and one to wear as a shirt.

Fidel makes a speech and declares, 'In Cuba, nobody goes to sleep hungry!' One disheveled man raises a hand and says, 'Commandante, I haven't eaten in days. I'm very hungry.' Fidel says, 'Then, true to my word, you will not go to sleep!'

The teacher asks Pepito, 'What systems are incompatible with the Communist system of government?' Pepito answers, 'The digestive system and the nervous system.'

Still another teacher shows her class a photograph of President Bush and asks if anyone recognizes him. Absolute silence. She continues, 'Let me give you a hint: It is because of this man that we Cubans go hungry.' Pepito jumps up and says, 'I didn't recognize him without his beard and uniform.'"

Who is this 'Brooks'? And who is 'Dunn'?

Rich Lowry at his most funny:

In a "values" discussion on CNN the other night, the Republican governor of Nebraska was queried and probed as if he were from another planet: "Bipedal, carbon-based life forms in Nebraska are sexually dimorphic and pair off in long-term commitments called — forgive me if I mispronounce this — 'marriage'? Can you please describe, in as simple terms as possible, the concept of barbecue? Who is Brooks? And if I may follow up quickly, who is Dunn?"

Monday, November 08, 2004

The Death of the Great White Whale

Edwards' political career flashes before his eyes

But as early as Aug. 5, when the Swifties were just getting traction, Edwards wanted to push back, hard. McCain had just told the Associated Press that the Swift Boat ads were “dishonest and dishonorable... the same kind of deal that was pulled on me.” Edwards wanted to begin a speech, “I join with Senator McCain in calling on the president to condemn this dishonest and dishonorable ad.” But Kerry headquarters said no. Stephanie Cutter, the boss of the Kerry communications shop, explained that the campaign didn’t need to give the Swift Boat vets any more attention than they were already getting.

Edwards played along, but his aides were indignant. They warned the veep candidate that the story was already out of control and about to get worse. Historian Douglas Brinkley, author of a wartime biography of Kerry, cautioned that Kerry’s diary included mention of a meeting with some North Vietnamese terrorists in Paris. Edwards was flabbergasted. “Let me get this straight,” the senator said. “He met with terrorists? Oh, that’s good."

Red vs Blue: The Computer Metaphor

To translate it into UNIX system administration terms (Randy's fundamental metaphor for just about everything), the post-modern, politically correct atheists were like people who had suddenly found themselves in charge of a big and unfathomably complex computer system (viz. society) with no documentation or instructions of any kind, and so whose only way to keep the thing running was to invent and enforce certain rules with a kind of neo-Puritanical rigor, because they were at a loss to deal with any deviations from what they saw as the norm. Where as people who were wired into a church were like UNIX system administrators who, while they might not understand everything, at least had some documentation, some FAQs and How-tos and README files, providing some guidance on what to do when things got out of whack. They were, in other words, capable of displaying adaptability.

Jesusland

The Note on Krugman's latest

Their sense of humour is sometimes dead-on: "Paul Krugman's ironically headlined last column until January (He's off to write a textbook!!) is called "No Surrender," and it suggests that the chip that Karl Rove had implanted in Ralph "400,000 Man" Nader's brain has been moved to Krugman's cranium." Here's the link to Krugman's column, which I'm still trying to get around to perusing myself more closely.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Cool geography site

Find the distance as the crow flies between any two points on earth based on lattitude and longitude. It'll give you the latitude and longitude up to the 10th of a second as well as rough elevation of the city in question.

Arafat wanted to be buried in Jerusalem

But the Israeli justice minister is saying no: "[Jerusalem is] where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists." Ouch. Another excuse for terrorism on the part of the Palestinians, I expect. Will they ever learn that stopping the bombings is their only hope for statehood?

Remember the School Straffing Incident?

Well, evidently the pilot might not have screwed up as badly as one might think. Here's an opinion that says that night-runs are really hard, even for active duty and not guardsmen like the pilot in question. I give the pilot the benefit of the doubt.

UPDATE: A senator from New Jersey is not being so forgiving. He wants a guaruntee that this will 'never happen again'. Impossible. An unfortunate incident, but one has to be realistic. Similar events happen so rarely that one really has little room to complain.

Closet Republicans in the Foreign Service

“How can 59,054,087 be so dumb!”

That quote seems to be getting me quite a bit of traffic from Google, since Maroonblog is coming up as one of the first results to a search on it. I guess I should thank the internet gods or something like that. Instead, I'll humbly thank my readers. Have a look around, and come back often=) Cheers!

UPDATE: Here's a characteristic search in this google-launch, in case you were interested.

Relief after Victory

I feel similar to Jim Geraghty now that the election is over--relieved and happy that Western Civilization is safer. His whole piece is worth reading, but here's a money-quote:

In a short while, we're going to have to get back to the real world. That bearded punk quaking in a Pakistan cave who decided to play pundit last Friday — we're gonna dismantle him the way we've dismantled his organization. Yeah, we noticed no attacks in the U.S. between 9/11/01 and 11/03/04 — that didn't happen by accident. It happened because we're winning, and we're not going to let up until the word "al Qaeda" is as distant and meaningless as "Barbary pirates."

Say no to Specter

The Networks are Instruments of the Democratic Party

Kerry's campaign swayed CBX, ABC, CNN, and NBC from following Fox and putting Ohio in the Bush column early Wednesday morning. This is in the New York Times. Do you need any more evidence for MSM bias?

Religious beliefs and the enlightenment...

...are not mutually exclusive, as Garry Wills would have you believe after reading his oped piece in the NYTs. His final sentence sums up his bias pretty well: "The moral zealots will, I predict, give some cause for dismay even to nonfundamentalist Republicans. Jihads are scary things. It is not too early to start yearning back toward the Enlightenment." Jihads? I don't know many evangelicals that want to blow up stuff and institute a theocracy in America. They just want a government that is decent and moral.

What's especially interesting, though, is that Mr. Wills contradicts the arguments of a book he wrote ten years ago (hat tip: Glenn Reynolds). Check his inconsistancies here. It's obvious that he's contorting himself to stay in line with Kerry supporters; compromising one's learned opinions that way is just sad.

More Cabinent Speculation

The WaPo gets in on it now (some anglosphere papers hit this yesterday). Wolfowitz for SecDef, if Rummy departs. I know it won't happen, since Condy'll get it first, but it'd be awesome if he did. Any man that's so hawkish that The Economist dubbs him a 'velociraptor' is just amazing, heh.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

MoDo goes reactionary

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or 'values voters,' as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on 'moral issues.'

This quote is particularly funny: "Vice continued, "Now we move forward to serve and to guard the country we love." Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage.""

Polemics like these can do little for liberals except reenforce their bitterness and decrease their political viability. Did you see Obama saying idiotic things like this? No. You saw him being charming and genial. Legitimate criticism of the Bush administration is far more effective when not laced with foolish rhetoric like this.

Smart Things to Say

Speculation on Bush Redux

Mr. Rosenberg speculates. I'm waiting for the democrats to "eat themselves alive", myself, but SS reform and putting Iran in its place will be good as well. Not too sure on a 17% flat tax, since poor people really do have little money. Maybe flat for people who make 50 grand or more.

Govern Away, Mr. President

Accountability requires choice, and choice implies the exclusion of some possibilities. It can therefore be "polarizing." Perhaps Bush could have governed in a way that left the country less polarized — although that is not as clear to me as it seems to be to others. But while gratuitous offense and incivility are always to be avoided, political harmony is not an important goal in its own right. It is not more important than setting pro-growth policies, defending unborn human life, or providing for the common defense. Conservatives who thought Bush should try to accomplish those goals were not wrong to pursue them even at the risk of inspiring some bitterness.

Specter != Judiciary Chair

Zell deems Democrats Rump Party

This election outcome should have been implausible, if not impossible. With a litany of complaints — bad economy, bad deficit, bad foreign war, bad gas prices — amplified by a national media that discarded any pretense of neutrality, a national opposition party should have won this election.

But the Democratic Party is no longer a national party. As difficult as the challenges are — both real and fabricated — Democrats offered no solution that was either believable or acceptable to vast regions of America.

My respect for England...

...is declining by the day. Lucky for them they have Tony Blair or I'd be lumping them with France about now. Why, you ask? Because of the garbage that the UK papers are running about Bush's victory tomorrow. Like the following picture:
and a caption in The Daily Mirror under a picture of Bush that says: “How can 59,054,087 be so dumb!”

Belated UPDATE: Just thought I'd say hi to all of those out there that are getting my humble blog as a google search result on the "how can 59...be so dumb" quote. I encourage you to take a look around, especially if you find that remark to be as ridiculous and arrogant as I do.

The New York Times on President Bush

The Economist weighs in...

on the GOP's resounding victory: "After a bitterly fought election, Democrats and liberals will hope that Mr Bush now governs from the centre. But they have hoped that before, and were disappointed. With a more decisive victory under his belt, expect him to try to consolidate and expand the gains of his victorious conservative movement."

A more militant...

Your opinion is exit poll

Orin Kerr: "The apparent inaccuracy of the exit polls yesterday makes me wonder whether the phrase "exit poll" will now enter the American vernacular to mean "a quick impression that is probably wrong.""

Destruction of the Democratic Party?

UPDATE: Megan McArdle contends that the left, as seen on some left-wing blogs, may be beginning the process of introspection, as opposed to the conspiracy theories and excuses of the last four years, that may lead to future political viability for the democrats.

We live in a conservative nation...

...says Larry Kudlow as he also writes how that majority can move America in the right direction:

All of this points to an important political thought: Rather than wasting time trying to persuade blue-state liberals to switch their allegiance to conservative principles — whether national security, tax cuts, or the social issues — it is much more productive to expand the base of red-state conservatives and get them to turn out heavily on Election Day. America is a conservative “right” nation. It is now governed by a conservative president, a conservative Senate, a conservative House of Representatives, and a majority of conservative governors.

If the Bush-led conservative majority keeps its promises on a strong defense, on spreading peace-inducing freedom and democracy around the world, on limited government and lower tax rates to promote economic growth at home, on the pro-consumer, pro-investor, ownership-society, reformist conservative agenda for Social Security, healthcare, and education, and on the social values of protecting the unborn and preserving traditional marriage, then the 2004 election outcome will represent a huge step in the right direction for this great country.

A MANDATE FOR CULTURE WAR: That's Bill Bennett's conclusion. He won't be the only one. What we're seeing, I think, is a huge fundamentalist Christian revival in this country, a religious movement that is now explicitly political as well. It is unsurprising, of course, given the uncertainty of today's world, the devastating attacks on our country, and the emergence of so many more liberal cultures in urban America. And it is completely legitimate in this country for such views to be represented in public policy, however much I disagree with them. But the intensity of the passion, and the inherently totalist nature of religiously motivated politics means deep social conflict if we are not careful. Our safety valve must be federalism. We have to live and let live. As blue states become more secular, and red states become less so, the only alternative to a national religious war is to allow different states to pursue different options. That goes for things like decriminalization of marijuana, abortion rights, stem cell research and marriage rights. Forcing California and Mississippi into one model is a recipe for disaster. Federalism is now more important than ever. I just hope that Republican federalists understand this. I fear they don't.

I'm glad to hear that he says representing religious views in public is an acceptable practice in our country, even if he disagrees with it. I agree with him on the federalism issue, though. If some states want to have liberal policies and laws, let them. They just shouldn't expect the whole country to want those liberal views.

True words

On the republican victories from the...surprise, Guardian: "If this doesn't add up to a mandate, it is hard to know what the word means. Increased turnout. Narrow but decisive wins on all fronts. What more can you ask for from a single campaign? Bush and his party won fair (well, probably) and square."

UPDATE: Now, what to do with that mandate? Bill Bennet says we should begin "The Great Relearning" of decent culture because it seems to have been cultural and moral issues that carried Bush to victory.

Roundup of left-wing bloggers

Cheney's subtle humour

This isn't the only time he's made a joke like this (remember when he refered to his 'replacement' at the RNC?), but during his speech today he said that he 'delivered Wyoming' for the ticket. That has to be a dig at Edwards for not doing so. Heh.

"Haha!"

To use that venerable Simpson's phrase. In a Reuters news report it is commented that the US media often dubbed the French "cheese-eating surrender monkeys". That's amazingly funny considering it's a Reuters report.

Bush Cabinet Predictions

Le Monde is Trash

They trashed American democracy, saying the following: "Such disorder, unimaginable in most other democratic countries, does no honour to the US. And it is worrying that the fate of the world is in suspense because of such an archaic system."

Yeah, that's funny coming from a paper in a country where the slightest hint of tweaking civil servant benefits leads to massive civil unrest.

I can't resist.

Some facts about the GOP Victories

President Bush:
*** Became the first President to be re-elected while gaining seats in the House and Senate since 1936 and the first Republican President since 1924 to be re-elected while re-electing Republican House and Senate majorities.
*** Became the first President to win a majority of the popular vote since 1988.
*** Received 57.4 million votes - more than any other candidate in history. He broke President Reagan's 1984 mark of 54.5 million. (96% reporting)
***Increased the popular vote by seven million votes since 2000 - more than twice Clinton's increase from 1992 to 1996.
***Improved his percentage in every state except four (MD, OR, VT and WY). This includes a four percent increase in John Kerry's home state, Massachusetts.

Stupid Headline

Sweet, sweet victory

I second Stephen Greene's sentiments: "I don't know about you, but the idea of Jacques Chirac having to make a forced-polite congratulatory call to Bush makes me want to light a Cohiba and pour another scotch. The fact that Chirac won't be speaking French with an American President makes me want to pour a double." Read the rest of his article as well.

I agree with the New York Times

Hear that, Kerry supporters? You can be sad about Kerry losing, but being angry and bitter is not okay. Take your oats and support the commander in chief for the good of the nation. It's the right thing to do.

Kerry Should Concede

Kerry can't overcome 140 thousand votes with provisional ballots. They'd have to break to him at a ridiculous percentage. He should be a gentleman, concede, and ask his supports to follow the President for the good of the nation.

I'm skeptical that he could be so classy. I hope he proves me wrong.

UPDATE: NRO is reporting that there are only 75,000 provisional ballots in Ohio. That's not nearly enough for Kerry to overcome Bush's present lead. Why won't he concede?

French Discussion on Neoconservatism-

C'est stupid!

This is what Le Monde has to say:"Election américaine : incertitude dans l'Ohio, crainte d'un nouvel imbroglio". A new imbroglio. Hah. They're just kidding themselves. They'll wake up to reality soon enough, and realize how isolated they are from the power players of the world today.

I'm addicted to the corner, and you should be too

Aside from the amusing exchanges between disgruntled readers that think NRO writers posting on the latest exit poll numbers "are doing immesurable damage" to GOP moral nationwide, there is a funny exchange on there about the imbalance in the first wave of exit polls between male and female responders. Here it is:

Cliff May:Jonah, you ask “why on earth” the exit pollsters are approaching more women than men. My guess: Because more men then women are working as exit pollsters.

Like if you had that job, you’d really pass up the pretty girls to go ask the men to fill out your silly little forms.

KJL:CLIFF IS EVIL: Now you've given all the women who weren't approached by pollsters a complex. Good work.

Ahhhh....presidential election day. Glad it only comes around once every four years. If it was more frequent our life-expectancies would go down.

Exit Poll Info

Drudge posted numbers that have Kerry up with a small lead in Ohio and Florida, but with a 59-41 female/male ratio. If that's the case, Bush is up in Florida when the voting is done, since he gets more votes from men than women.

UPDATE: Drudge also points out the following: "But early 2000 exit polls showed Gore +3 in Florida; showed Gore-Bush even in CO [Bush won by 9], exits showed Gore +4 in AZ [Bush won by 6]"

When the man comes 'round

Life is a sexual carnival...

'I personally would be shocked out of my pants if I was at college now,' confides Wolfe, who spent four years trawling the campuses for raw material. The book, he says, is 'about sex as it interacts with social status. And I have tried to make the sex un-erotic. I will have failed if anyone gets the least bit excited. So much of modern sex is un-erotic, if erotic means flight of fancy or romantic build-up. Sex now is so easy to consummate - it is a pressure that affects everybody, girls more than boys, I think.'

As he notes, the America which votes tomorrow is a country riven over morality like never before. On the flip side of the culture of ubiquitous sex is that of puritan Christianity, as harnessed in no small part by Bush. 'Yes, there is this puritanism,' says Wolfe, 'and I suppose we are talking here about what you might call the religious right. But I don't think these people are left or right, they are just religious, and if you are religious, you observe certain strictures on sexual activity - you are against the mainstream, morally speaking. And I do have sympathy with them, yes, though I am not religious. I am simply in awe of it all; the openness of sex. In the 60s they talked about a sexual revolution, but it has become a sexual carnival.'

After an inane statement by the Guardian columnist writing about Mr. Wolfe, the article has several other interesting points in it:

Where does it come from, this endorsement of the most conservative administration within living memory? Of this president who champions the right and the rich, who has taken America into the mire of war, and seeks re-election tomorrow? Wolfe's eyes resume the expression of detached Southern elegance.

"I think support for Bush is about not wanting to be led by East-coast pretensions. It is about not wanting to be led by people who are forever trying to force their twisted sense of morality onto us, which is a non-morality. That is constantly done, and there is real resentment. Support for Bush is about resentment in the so-called 'red states' - a confusing term to Guardian readers, I agree - which here means, literally, middle America. I come from one of those states myself, Virginia. It's the same resentment, indeed, as that against your own newspaper when it sent emails targeting individuals in an American county." Wolfe laughs as he chastises. "No one cares to have outsiders or foreigners butting into their affairs. I'm sure that even many of those Iraqis who were cheering the fall of Saddam now object to our being there. As I said, I do not think the excursion is going well."

And John Kerry? "He is a man no one should worry about, because he has no beliefs at all. He is not going to introduce some manic radical plan, because he is poll-driven, and it is therefore impossible to know where or for what he stands."

As far as Wolfe is concerned, "the great changes in America came with the second world war, since which time I have not seen much shift in what Americans fundamentally believe. Apart from the fact that as recently as the 1970s, Nelson Rockefeller shocked people by leaving his wife of 30 years, while now celebrities routinely have children outside marriage, the mayor of New York leaves his wife for his lover and no one blinks. But a large number of people have remained religious, and it is a divided country - do not forget that Al Gore nearly won the last election. The country is split right along party lines."

And there has been a complete climate change in the nation which elected Bill Clinton twice, to that which may confer the same honour on George Bush tomorrow. This, says Wolfe, began not with the election of Bush, but on the morning of September 11 2001.

None of us who were in New York that day will ever forget it, and Wolfe is no exception. "I was sitting in my office when someone called to tell me two light planes had collided with the World Trade Centre. I turned on my television, before long there was this procession of people of all kinds, walking up the street. What I remember most was the silence of that crowd; there was no sound.

"That day told us that here was a different kind of enemy. I honestly think that America and the Bush administration felt that something extreme had to be done. But I do not think that the Americans have become a warlike people; it is rare in American history to set about empire-building - acquiring territory and slaves. I've never met an American who wanted to build an empire.

...

So what is it about his liberal neighbours and fellow diners in his adoptive New York that Wolfe cannot abide? "I cannot stand the lock-step among everyone in my particular world. They all do the same thing, without variation. It gets so boring. There is something in me that particularly wants it registered that I am not one of them."

Parting cordially, it seems strange that such an effervescent maverick, such a jester at the court of all power - all vanity, indeed - should so wholeheartedly endorse the power machine behind George Bush. And so an obvious thought occurs: perhaps Wolfe is jester at the court of New York too. Would he really be happier away from New York, out on the plains, in the "red states" where everyone at dinner parties votes for Bush? Wolfe's eyes revert to that mischievous glint, and he allows himself a smile. "I do think," he admits, apparently speaking for himself, his country and his president, "that if you are not having a fight with somebody, then you are not sure whether you are alive when you wake up in the morning."

Subservient Chicken

Stupid statements

Times Online - World: "These northern Midwest states are virtually a new Confederacy. Modern America sees them as embodying its polarity. Arriving in Wisconsin from New York or Washington is like coming to a war front.

Suddenly there is noise. Television screens erupt in abusive advertisements. Posters and canvassers are everywhere. Europeans may feel aggrieved at not voting on the leadership of the Western world, but so do New Yorkers, Californians and Texans. Because they are predictable, they have seen virtually no campaigning. Instead Mr Bush has been to Wisconsin 13 times, Mr Kerry 12."

The people of Texas and California do matter. Bush would be hard pressed to win without Texas, and Kerry would have no chance without California and New York. Just because those states have clear majorities siding with one candidate doesn't meant that they don't matter. It just means that there won't be a fight for a few votes in that state.

I wonder how most people take the statement about those arriving from New York or Washington seeing the midwest like the Confederacy. That seems to be an oblique insult. Just because a clear majority don't support liberal elites like Kerry or Moore doesn't mean that they're backwards or unmodern. Maybe the author of this article should take off his blinders and stop being bigoted.

And, perhaps Europeans, who are unhappy because they have no say in the US elections, should invest in their militaries and in becoming friends with the US if they hope to have a real say in the dangerous world in which we live. Spinless whining is respected by very few, especially not by Americans nor by terrorists.

Newspapers continue slide

Monday, November 01, 2004

Flash: Funny Joke involving France

***breaking news***

AP and UPI reported that the French Government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from 'run' to 'hide.' The only two higher levels in France are 'surrender' and 'collaborate.'

The change was precipitated by the recent fire which destroyed one of France's biggest white flag factories, thereby disabling their military.

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Jason Broander was a fourth year at the University of Chicago and is currently majoring in History; he has a strong interest in historic events of both the past and present and welcomes any comments and suggestions for this site;)

*easter egg*you win ;)-*

Andrew Dzwonchyk is a second year in the college. He plans to major in Economics, Poli Sci, and/ or History, and is a native of the DC area. His areas of particular interest include foreign policy and social issues.